Workaholic

 This vast patch of land, suddenly teeming with life, joy, cheers and jeers. It was not a long time ago that I just lived together with my younger brother, now he's seemingly ahead of me on life in just about anything.

Married to a caring wife, had a smart and diligent daughter who's a real animal lover. Last time I saw her, she was on the way to become a top class horse jockey all before even graduating high school. On her free time, she would coddle their 2 horses with an amount of love any child would envy.

And it didn't stopped there, 2 horses weren't enough for them, they're going for a pair of dogs and a kitten to boot.

Now me and my brother are at our twilight years, yet he had so much joy and happiness around him. I was alone all this time. No partner, no real close friend, I barely even talked to our family butler of few years.

I worked hard, that's all I have, that's all I can do. Climbed my way to the top of the food chains, and now I am standing alone with no allies and enemies all around the world. Not a single co-workers I can trust with my personal life. I don't party, I don't hangout, I don't seek any kind of entertainment.

Each passing days, I buried myself to my computer screen. Doing what I do best. Working myself to sleep.

Sometimes it becomes too much and I had to physically remove myself from the vicinity, taking a short walk around the neighborhood to cool my head and my heart.

I must admit, there is some jealousy brewing within me. How could he got it all and more? I had to make sacrifices here and there, had to choose between 2 things I wanted every now and then. I resent him for that, I don't have much of a relationship anymore with my own brother, much less a talking one.

He let me stayed at a spare room in his house, maybe he didn't have the guts to evict me now that we are barely acting as a functional family in our old age. Each day I am surrounded by this seemingly too good of a stroke of luck. Each day I am being consumed from within. Maybe I am not long for this world if this keeps up, my heart definitely won't go easy on me.

Despite all this, I won't do no harm to him or his family. I can't, I don't have the time to worry about myself or my feeling. I need to do everything about my work 150% in order to stay on top. I will stay out of his family affairs for now, I need to keep these hungry savages at bay, reminds them who's in charge.

A lapse of concentration could be all it takes for them. Smell some blood and they won't stop, not even against stacked odds. A pyrrhic victory is still a victory to them. What a bunch of savages.

I must confess, their older dog grew on me. I liked to pet her and play with her time and time again. While this is no substitute for the lack of human interactions I had, this will do. I play pretend as a hunter with the dog, I gave her treats whenever she behaved well, I filled her bowl with dog food almost every day.

Today was going to had a slight detour from my usual daily routines. I want to play with her in the yard, I just felt like to, I want to do it today.

Waking up, I felt some aches on my back, more than usual. Maybe I moved weirdly during my sleep, maybe butler Kiki did something different to the bed sheet prior, I don't know. But I won't let this ruined my source of joy.

I walked past my battle station, currently in off state. There's a faint sense of relieve that today I didn't have to waste my day sitting in front of the screen like usual. At least not right now, the dog was waiting for me.

Coming down the stairs, I spotted butler Kiki. Busy as always, taking care of the whole house. I decided to not greet her. Not that I always do that anyway.

Now that I had a relaxed mind while walking, this is a nice and big house. It didn't feel cramped at all even with the 5 of us living together. Me, my brother with his wife and daughter, and butler Kiki. Not to mention the pets they had. A pair of horses, a pair of dogs, and a kitten. I even eavesdropped a talk about another kitten few days ago.

The living room was spotless as always, butler Kiki put her pride on her works. Through goes the dining chairs and there I arrived at the back yard, the dogs are playing, one of the horse was trotting around while the other one was grazing.

I reflexively smiled as the older dog approached me, my heart was elated. I needed this.

Suddenly, I felt some acute dizziness. This is new, never felt this before. I stumbled and grabbed on the door handle as I tried to control my ragged breath.

My ears ringing, I can barely hear my own breathing, let alone what is happening around me.

My left leg gave in, I can barely stand. I am down on the grassy back yard, surrounded by concerned pets.

I can't move my arm, its dead stiff on my side.

My breathing becomes more and more erratic, to the point I can barely focus on it.

My vision becomes a blurry white with patches of green, presumably due to me facing sideways with grass blades blown by the morning wind gently caressing my right cheek.

Suddenly, the loud ringing in my ears were gone, it went dead silent.

The dreading silence was unsettling. I can't take it, I tried to scream, to pound the ground, to move around, flailing my limbs where I can.

I can't hear my own breathing, or if I was even breathing at the moment.

Did I relaxed my body and mind a bit too much? Is this some kind of a divine punishment for neglecting my duties as a human being?

Is this the pain my body has been tirelessly suppressing while I focused myself on work? Did my body finally had enough and caved in?

Those thought flashed through my head as the patches of green on my vision gradually fading away, leaving the blinding white in its place, occupying my vision.

One thing for sure, those beasts of a human at my workplace would jumped with joy upon hearing my demise.